200 Acres To Be Added To Black Hills National Cemetery

STURGIS, S.D. (AP) — The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that significantly expands the Black Hills National Cemetery.

About 200 acres of land currently held by the Bureau of Land Management will be transferred to the 107-acre national cemetery. The additional land is northwest of the current cemetery along Interstate 90 near Sturgis.

About 28,600 veterans and their loved ones are buried at the cemetery which opened in 1948. The cemetery's assistant director Jerome Smith says 903 people were buried in fiscal 2017. The cemetery also includes veterans from Wyoming, Nebraska and Montana.

A companion version of the cemetery expansion bill passed the House earlier.